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August 20, 2010

Utica teen sets world record, wins two gold medals

By Dominick DiRienzo Meadville Tribune The Meadville Tribune Fri Aug 20, 2010, 07:00 AM EDT

Aug. 20, 2010 7:00 a.m. — The days and events have flown by since Cody Ebbert returned home Monday after two weeks in Germany with the U.S junior barefoot ski team.

But that’s OK, because Ebbert, who gets dragged behind a speedboat at 45 mph barefoot waterskiing, is used to the motion blur. A week of events celebrating his junior world record for trick barefoot skiing, two gold medals and a bronze at the Barefoot Water Ski World Championships continues at 7 tonight with a party at Lakeside Park Company on Stoneboro Lake. The public is invited to congratulate the Lakeview High School senior.

Ebbert, 17, has done television interviews and talked with newspaper reporters, been celebrated with a banner over the streets in Sandy Lake and ridden in a parade Monday where fans lined U.S. Route 62.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Greg Ebbert said. “The whole crowd was cheering him on during his jump. It was neat.”

At the parade, children waved signs and family and friends cheered their hometown champion as he gave out hugs and high-fives.

Ebbert, who set a record in the tricks competition, won both individual and team gold medals for barefoot water skiing tricks and a bronze in jumps (an event that requires Ebbert to hit an 18-inch ramp floating in the water, layout parallel to the surface and cover as much as 60 feet). Ebbert got one gold for helping lead the U.S. junior team, which finished with 5,521.32 points, to the overall title. Australia earned the silver medal with 5,430.08 points and New Zealand earned the bronze medal with 4,544.90 points. Ebbert won the gold medal in the boys individual tricks (5,500 points) and the bronze medal in boys’ jumping (63 feet). Also his score of 6,350 in the team tricks contest was the highest ever awarded to an American junior barefoot water skier.

With the win, Ebbert’s father, Greg, said his son will move up to the Open Pro division when the world championships are held again in two years.

Ebbert, who started water skiing when he was 2 years old, went barefooting for the first time when he was 6.

“He started barefooting and was getting better and better,” said Greg Ebbert, who finished 14th in the senior slalom division and 26th overall at the world championships. “But this last year he has really excelled.”

The community got the good news about Cody Ebbert’s wins Saturday.

“Everybody here was pretty stoked,” said Josh Heckman of Sandy Lake. “We’ve been skiing with him (on Sandy Lake) for the last five years.”

Heckman said the group of six skis the lake every weekend.

Cody’s mother Lisa, who accompanied him to Germany, said she was almost overwhelmed.

“It’s his first world competition,” she said. “For him to do that well is pretty impressive.”

Greg Ebbert said Cody learned from Ron Scarpa, a seven-time world champion from Winter Haven, Fla., who has been holding an annual barefoot skiing clinic on Sandy Lake for more than a dozen years. The Ebberts live in Utica.

Greg Ebbert said training for nationals and a trip to the World Barefoot Center for training with Scarpa near Christmas.

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Flying high

Utica teen sets world record, wins two gold medals

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